I have started my holiday baking. Mmmm, mmmm, do I love cookies? Yes, I do. We’ve been baking off and on for several days in between Christmas concert performances and Christmas parties with our family and friends. Here are a few more great Christmas cookies recipes with pictures.
CRANBERRY ALMOND BISCOTTI yield 24 cookies
Ingredients:
1-1/2 toasted almonds chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
2-1/2 cups flour
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon anise extract
zest of one orange zest
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt, orange zest and anise extract. Stir in the flour. Add almonds and cranberries. Dough will be sticky. Turn out onto well-floured board and knead adding flour until the dough is workable and not sticky. Form into two logs about 9 inches long and 3-1/2 inches wide. Place on floured cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes until slightly browned. Reduce oven temperature to 275°F. Cool for 10 minutes. Slice logs into 1 inch pieces. Place on cookie sheets and bake 15 minutes. Flip cookies and bake another 15 minutes or until slightly brown. Cool and store in an air-tight container.
FOOLPROOF FUDGE yield 36 pieces
Ingredients:
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
½ teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
In a microwave safe bowl add all ingredients except walnuts. Working at 30 second intervals, heat the mix then stir. Repeat heating and stirring until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add in walnuts and spread in a 9 x 9 inch pan. Cool completely and cut into 1 inch squares. You can also try mixing different types of chips (peanut butter, milk chocolate, mint) and different nuts (almonds, cashews or peanuts) to create various types of fudge.
If you are giving cookies and candies as gifts, a fun and easy to way to present them is to get a new gift box. Line the box with either foil or parchment papers and then add your cookies. Tie off with a big bow and your gift is ready to go.
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